Boys who bully others at school are at increased risk of growing up to be abusive in their intimate adult relationships, researchers said.

Action Points

Explain that boys who bully others at school are at increased risk of growing up to be abusive in their intimate adult relationships.

Note that even those who said they rarely acted as bullies in school were still at increased risk for committing intimate partner violence after adjusting for age, race, and educational attainment.

Boys who bully others at school are at increased risk of growing up to be abusive in their intimate adult relationships, researchers said.

Among 1,491 young men in a survey, those who admitted to being frequent bullies in childhood were nearly four times as likely to say they had recently struck or threatened an intimate partner compared with those who said they had never bullied others, reported Kathryn L. Falb, MHS, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.

Even those who said they rarely acted as bullies in school were still at increased risk for committing intimate partner violence (odds ratio 1.53, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.29), after adjusting for age, race, and educational attainment.

"These findings suggest that individuals who are likely to perpetrate abusive behaviors against others may do so across childhood and into adulthood," Falb and colleagues wrote online in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

They also suggested that programs to reduce school bullying could also be helpful in discouraging spouse abuse, and other forms of intimate partner violence, later in life, if they focus on "reducing abusive behaviors and the promotion of equitable attitudes across settings, life stages, and relationships."

The findings emerged from a study conducted among men 18- to 35-years-old seeking services at three community health centers in Boston. Nearly 3,500 were approached, with 2,229 agreeing to complete the survey.

Those who indicated they had never had sexual intercourse or failed to answer key questions on the survey were excluded, leaving 1,491 for analysis.

Overall, 16.2% said they had committed intimate partner violence in the past year. Nearly the same number (16.3%) reported that they had frequently bullied others during their school years and another 24.6% said they had done so infrequently.

In the researchers' adjusted regression analysis, the odds ratio for intimate partner violence among former frequent school bullies, relative to those reporting no history of bullying, was 3.82 (95% CI 2.55 to 5.73).

Other factors also found to be independent predictors of intimate partner violence included the following:

The raw data also suggested an association between abuse toward adults and a history of being a victim of bullying. Falb and colleagues found an OR 2.56 (95% CI 1.71 to 3.81) for former frequent victims to report committing intimate partner violence before taking adjustments for age, race, and education.

But the association vanished in the adjusted model (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.51 to 1.39).

Similarly, frequent exposure to community violence was significantly associated with intimate partner violence before the adjustments (OR 4.03, 95% CI 2.60 to 6.25) but not when age, race, and education were taken into account (OR 1.38, 95% CI 0.83 to 2.29).

"Bullying others at school and perpetration of intimate partner violence are both defined by concepts of power and control over others," Falb and colleagues wrote.

Thus, they added, it would be no surprise that boys who used intimidation to maintain power and control over peers at school would resort to similar tactics in adulthood.

"Future research is needed to discern the mechanisms and underlying root causes of abusive behavior, such as power and control, as well as specific forms and timing of bullying peers in school," they wrote.

Limitations to the study included its reliance on participants' recall of past behaviors and other data, the convenience sample, the modest response rate, and lack of information on those who refused participation.

Falb and colleagues also noted that the survey asked only one question about bullying perpetration, "limiting our ability to understand the extent to which various aspects of bullying may be most relevant to intimate partner violence perpetration." In addition, respondents' interpretation of the term "bullying" may have differed from that of the investigators.

Falb and colleagues declared they had no relevant financial interests.

Accessibility Statement

At MedPage Today, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities can access all of the content offered by MedPage Today through our website and other properties. If you are having trouble accessing www.medpagetoday.com, MedPageToday's mobile apps, please email legal@ziffdavis.com for assistance. Please put "ADA Inquiry" in the subject line of your email.